Abstract

Ads with adult themes are produced devoid of the consideration that there might children amongst the viewers watching these themes and are being cognized sexually. The current study aims to analyze the issue of sexualization in children of Pakistan through exposure to sexual themes used in TV advertisements. The current research employed dual research methods. In the first stage, qualitative content analysis of television ads was conducted, and in the second stage; focused group interviews were conducted with the children to validate the findings of the first method. The results indicate that children learn and imitate what they watch through TV advertisements. It concludes that exposure of children to such advertisements containing sexual content and themes leads to the adaptation of behavior that is not suitable for the children.

Key Words

TV Advertisements, Sexualization, Pakistani Children, Heavy Viewers, Light Viewers

Introduction

The first two or three years of our lives tend to get forgotten in time, whereas there are the early experiences, that maya just remain for years to come and last to influence even till adulthood.  The human brain goes through a phase of rapid development from birth, and it is the early experiences that define if the foundation of your mind is strong or fragile. During the early years of growth and development, the mind is fragile and prone to influence from external circumstances and experiences for either the better or worse (Center on the Developing Child, 2007). 

Various research studies have been conducted on how media affects different demographic segments of the society still there is ample need to study its effect upon children. Ads with adult themes are produced devoid of the consideration that there might children amongst the viewers watching these themes and are being cognized sexually. The exposure of children to such advertisements containing sexual content and themes leads to the adaptation of behavior that is not suitable for the children.  Then what of the consequences; the concern stands vital as there is an evident lack of literature and research on the subject in the context of Pakistan. 

The current study aims to analyze the issue of sexualization in children of Pakistan through exposure to sexual themes used in TV advertisements, in hopes that this may become an anchor for future studies on the subject. The three main objectives of the study are as follows: 1) exploration of how sexual messages are presented and framed in advertisements, 2) to study the impact such advertisements have on light and heavy viewer children; 3) and lastly to analyze how these sexual indicators being exposed to the children, are sexualizing them. 




Impact of Sexual Themed Advertisements on Children

Psychology defines the reproduction or enactment of an action done by another being as ‘Imitation’. There are studies on infants that showcase how a child will reproduce movements seen and acted on by others in the second half of their first year. Be it raising of their arms to trying to speak, the imitation phase in our lives start in the first two years of age. As the child grows up, they are exposed to models of all kinds. 

As Linda (2007) observes in her study that when sexual conducts and society standards determine a person’s belief regarding their physcial appeal, as being sexy, they are then taken as objects to be used by others and in return lose any holding of their own independent unique value. In such situations sexuality is forced upon them, making them the victims of sexualization. 

Where looking young is the definition of being a ‘sexy’ women, the line dividing who is mature and who is not, is confused (Cook & Kaiser, 2004). Objectification hence is now the comprehensive worry of the blurring boundaries between childhood and adulthood (Buckingham, 2000).

Lin (1997) presents in his study that women in peak TVCs are often portrayed with lack of appropriate clothing, they expose a rather seductive side and are taken as an object of appeal. The research further demonstrates the ratio of objectification, as stating 9.2% are men and 20.8% are women. On MTV (Signorielli, McLeod, & Healy, 1994) similar analyses and results were presented supporting Lin’s study. 




Cultivation Effect of Media

Studying the effects of media, Gerbner & Gross (1976) debated that whether and if the exposure of television influences the everyday life perceptions of its viewers. The theory claims that the high television viewers tend to be vulnerable to media messages compared to those that are light viewers. Cultivation theory focuses more on attitudinal changes than behaviors of the viewers. The theory focuses on the unguarded impact TV has its audience, the line between reality and the virtual fabrication gets blurred, and even friction is considered real, making the viewers defenseless against the media intend.

The variance in the heavy and light viewer’s viewpoints indicate the role of TV on shaping a viewer’s perception of social reality (Shanahan, 1999). Cultivation theory needs to be highlighted and comprehended here to explain the methodology of this research’s approach. Gerbner’s study provides the building block for the concept that for heavy viewers the only reality of what they see on TV. Television exposure embeds values, attitudes and longings in people, hypothetically explained as someone living all alone with the TV being the only link to the outside world. For them the world they see on television is the only real world - a world which holds nothing of the real world (Fisher, 2008).

Methodology

The current research comprises of two parts. The first being a qualitative content analysis of television ads and the second continues with the findings being validated in focused group interviews from the children. The researchers opted for 12 ads to access if they held sexual themes. The cause-and-effect relationship between dependent and independent variables were examined and so were the effects of sexual appeals able to be imitated, which may also influence a child’s development, validated and investigated with focus group discussion.  

Survey method was used to study the cultivation effect of television viewing and the reaction to its messages. The viewing time was of importance, as based on which questions were addressed regarding the effect a certain amount of TV exposure has on the interpretation of messages by respondents.  

The researchers to avoid the social and cultural issues getting limited by quantitative design, concluded to use qualitative research, to address the questions of how and why an occurrence takes place. The order followed for the qualitative research is observation and open-ended discussion assemblies. Conclusions were drawn after the interpretations of the respondents were recorded, which led to a comprehensive understanding of people and their behavior. The study enabled the researchers to develop cultural and social contexts. 

Pakistani television advertisements were selected as the research population for content analysis. While for the focus group discussions the children of Pakistan were taken for the non-random purposive sampling. The ads were accessed with qualitative research, the codes address the base would the advertisements be analyzed (Gibbs, 2007). Thematic analysis was used to generate a coding sheet, five themes were used to analyze the sexual appeals in the ads. 

A total of 60 children were taken as the purposive sample for the focus group research. The children selected were based on characteristics proving helpful to the research objectives. The same was taken into consideration for selecting the ads for content analysis, to validate that if the themes found in the 12 ads had underlying sexual agents r not. Hereogenous sampling technique was used for the ad selection. 

On the other hand, the samples for the focus group discussions were categorized into four groups; where each group had 15 children. 2 groups meaning 30 children, were selected for the TV heavy viewers category; and 2 other, each consisting of 15 students were selected for light TV viewers sample. The age limit taken for this research was 2 to 12 years, which is a defined age limit for childhood by Piaget’s stages of development.  

Research on the heavy viewer’s focus groups were conducted after slecting a school which contained studnets accomodating to the current research’s objectives. To contribute to broader viewpoints, the children selected were diverse in ethnicity and social class (verified by the teachers and parents). 

On the other hand two islamic religious schools known by madrassas, based in Islamabad (capital of Pakistan); were carefully chosen with maximum variation/heterogeneous sampling technique. Diversity of the sample was prioritized. With the variance and diversity of the sampling, the researchers believe the results will be generalized as the perception from all across Pakistan. 

Data Analysis Technique

Content analysis was used to generate sexualizing codes from the existing data and literature, as is demonstrated in table 1. The codes are extracted from the responses, going through all transcripts, anything deeming sexual with respect to its definition from the introduction, was highlighted and defined as a sexual code. Table 2 highlights replies, and codes generated from heavy viewers, while table e highlights light viewers. Based on the then revealed codes, table 4 and 5 express the identified codes out of the focus group discussions of both heavy and light TV ad viewers.




 

Table 1

Sexual Codes and Themes Recognized for Content Analysis

Sexual Codes Generated from the Existing Literature:	Identified Themes
·   Revealing, sexy and lingerie type attires are worn ·   A seductive manner expressed by a women ·   Attention drawing clothing that accentuates a women’s physical assets (e.g. chest) ·   Skin being exposed, like of (legs, shoulders or back etc.) ·   Taken as sexual objects	1.    Gestures and acts of seduction 2.   Heterosexuality and eagerness 3.   Cultural embodiment of objectification
More Sexual Codes Detected in Ads
·   Women showing attraction and eagerness towards men ·   Wearing of tight-fitted clothing ·   Dominance of men expressed in different situations over women ·   Showing a woman taking baths in a bath tub or pool ·   Behavioral gestures and actions that pull the viewer’s attention to a women’s physical features	4. Intimacy between male and females 5. Displayed male dominance




Thematic analysis was used to design the coding sheet for the focus group discussion, these codes were identified by the selected transcripts and any sexual manner seen was recorded. The table being that is a sample to explain how the codes were generated.




 

Table 2

The Generated Codes by the Responses from Heavy Viewers

Focus group dialogue extracts		Codes
Participant No. 1	The girl looks so pretty wearing that dress, I wish my mother would let me wear such clothes (Backless & exposes shoulders); But she always tells me No.	Acceptance towards revealing clothing
Participant No. 8	That girl is naked. My mother won’t let me go to a pool for a bath. I love the ad; I wish I could be like her.
Participant No. 16	(Snickering) She’s naked in the water (A boy whispering to his friend) With reference to the Lux soap ad (Image 13)	Children interpreted that the women would be naked in the ads where nakedness is hinted
Participant No. 20	Observation made of boys pointing and whispering to their friends over the women’s chest and behind in the ad (Image 17) (Image 6)	The children were able to comprehend the sexual message in the ads
Participant No. 23	Observation made of the children being shy and snickering when the woman in the ad touched her leg or when she took her finger into her mouth (Image 3/ 1), the same was observed when in the Lux ad the female actor is giving a suggestive look to the male actor (Image 2). “Look how she is looking at him” (Image 2) – a boy is heard saying to his friend	Understanding of the suggestive message and context
Participant No. 28	“She is trying to be close to him, so she played the game”	Acceptance of Male and female closeness
Participant No.29	He pushed her back to trap her, she won’t be able to run away anymore. (Image 19)
Participant No. 30	I saw an ad and the girls were running to the boys when they smell good (Image 5), and Boys too like being close to girls when they like them	Sexual readiness displayed in both women and men

 

Table 3

The Generated Codes by the Responses from Light Viewers

Focus group Dialogue Extracts		Codes
Participant No. 1	They are sinning, it is a sin to get close to the opposite gender	Male and female intimacy is discouraged
Participant No. 5	Boys and girls should not be allowed to touch each other
Participant No. 9	It is not right for men to expose their bodies	Disapproval to exposure of body
Participant No. 10	The child expressed anger when the researcher hinted on revealing clothes being empowering “Women are wrong to wear anything that does not cover them properly”
Participant No. 11	Women will go to hell if they don’t cover their bodies. God will be angry at them
Participant No. 15	It is Satan telling them to Dance, because it haram	Dancing is forbidden
Participant No. 19	They should create distance between them, they are too close	The physical attractiveness of men and women is disapproval
Participant No. 20	Indifference to sexualized acts	No sexual indicator was found
Participant No. 23	The participant was observed more focused on playing with marble balls in his hands
Participant No. 30	These videos should be banned	Disapproval of sexual appeal in ads

 




Distinct patterns were identified between the codes, and the participant responses expressing both positive and negative viewpoints were categorized as one code and were not used to identify themes found in the reactions from the focus group discussion sessions.




 

Table 4

Codes Recognized from the Heavy Viewers’ Data

Identified Codes	Themes
Acceptance towards revealing clothing	6.                                                   Cultural objectification   7.                                                   Seductive gestures and acts     8.                                                   Male and female intimacy   9.                                                   Male dominance   10.                                                 Heterosexuality and readiness
Children interpreted that the women would be naked in the ads where nakedness is hinted
The children were able to comprehend the sexual message in the ads
Understanding of the suggestive message and context
Acceptance of Male and female closeness
Sexual readiness displayed in both women and men

 

Table 5

Codes Identified from Light Viewers’ Data

Codes Identified	Themes
Male and female intimacy is discouraged	·         Intimacy between opposite genders   ·         Body exposure   ·         Heterosexuality
Disapproval to exposure of body
Dancing is forbidden
The physical attractiveness of men and women is disapproval
Disapproval of sexual appeal in ads

Findings and Discussion

Seductive Gestures and Acts

It is observed that women are portrayed in a tempting way in advertisements. Their sexual behavior associated with physical appeal, defined as being sexy, is what sexualization is. 

The gentle gestures of them touching a surface and passing a seductive look as is displayed in (Image 1) in the Slice Juice Ad, the Lux Soap Ad (Image 2) and in the Vaseline Moisturizer Ad (Image 3)

It was observed that the children understood the sexual context of the ads, even if not the exact message but they knew the context was inappropriate. Some children at the back also started copying the actions to explain a certain view to their desk mates/ friends. 

Image 1: Slice Juice Ads


Image 2: Lux Soap Ads
 

Image 3: Vaseline Total Moisture Nourishing Ads


Heterosexuality and Readiness
The ads portray women and men as attracted with each other, be it an ad of men’s body spray to the ad of women’s hair removal cream; they are shown as drawn towards the other being always sexually ready. 
Gill (2008) in his study presented that women express a self that is more young, attractive and heterosexual, using their sexual appeal intentionally and in return are always portrayed as ready, and up for it, presenting in both men and women a display of sexual readiness in the ads.
Women are hence displayed attracted towards men in ads like that of (Image 4) (Image 5) or even men finding women sexually attractive (Image 5). This hypersexual act when is seen by the children is considered normal due to them not being able to clearly understand the intention behind the ads. This although as was concluded in the literature review triggers an early sexual introduction to sexual contexts that will mark their whole life ahead

Image 4: Bold - Men’s Perfume Ad.
 

Image 5: Close-up Toothpaste Ad.


Cultural Objectification 
With reference to thesocietypages.org, cultural objectification is the depiction or treatment of a person as a sexual object, serving as another person’s sexual pleasure; as is also displayed in advertisements (Grabe et al., 2009). When women wearing revealing clothing or when they pose sexually, are portrayed in an alluring manner like in Cola Next TV Ad (Image 6), it conveys ahead a sexual context to its viewers. Now with the children being exposed to hyper-sexual content, they also want to be ‘hot’ and ‘sexy’ (Papadopoulos, 2010). That being said this constant exposure has consequences on the young. The children while watching on TV, take the stimulating clothing as a symbol of beauty and social acceptance. And when this turns to imitation, it then becomes a symbol of sexualization.  This concept has raised the concern of childhood socialization being disturbed. There is now an increase of documented studies that state how social sexualization is affecting a child’s life psychologically for shorter and longer periods of time. The effects may become more evident as the children near adulthood (Gunter, 2014).  

Image 6: Cola Next TV Ad.




Revealing Clothing (Exposing the Figure and Body)

Body exposure is observed, as Saba Kamar

(Pakistani actor) for an ad for Lux beauty soap wears sexy clothes, exposing her shoulders, arms and legs (Image 8), while in the ad for EU hair removal cream (Image 7) and for Palmolive soap ad (Image 10) actors are shown wearing lingerie style of clothing. These are just a mere sample where not just the dresses of the women are exposing but also highlights their feminine figure. 

The showing of skin not just grabs attention of the viewers but also at the same time emphasizes the actor’s physical attractiveness, which results in their objectification. The media shapes the perception of the audience by making the people associate perfection with revealing clothes that show more skin (Grabe et al., 2009).







Image 7: EU Hair Removal Cream Ad



Image 8: Lux Soap Ad.




Image 9: Lux soap Ad.




Image 10: Palmolive Soap Ad.



Exposure of Skin

When women or even men are shown exposing their bodies, they are understood as being naked like in the Lux soap ad (Image 16). While advertisements are targeted, no advertiser can guarantee nor be sure of who sees their ad. As is discussed in an article “Too Much, Too Soon? Children, ‘Sexualization’ and Consumer Culture’, “What is intended at children is not essentially consumed by them, and what is aimed at adults is not necessarily only consumed by adults. 

These also include culturally defined acts of sexual nature, from stripping to wearing of lingerie in red, purple and black colors. Sexualization is also defined with exposure of some physical attribute e.g., cleavage, skin, legs and curves etc. (Bragg, Buckingham, Russell, & Willett, 2011).

Body exposure regardless to gender of men and women, adult or child indicate a use of sexual appeal (Image 15), clear objectification is portrayed in minds of the viewer while the ads fall under early introductory sexual messages in case the actor is a minor and child.  

Such themes may be explained from ads of such as of Faisal Sanitary fittings (Image 11), Palmolive (Image 12) and Lux Soap (Image 13), and also Vaseline Moisturizer (Image 14).                                  




Image 11: Faisal Sanitary Fittings Ad.

Image 12: Palmolive Soap Ad.



Image 13: Lux Soap Ad.

Image 14: Vaseline Moisturizer Ad.







Image 15: Dettol Soap Ads.



Image 16: Lux Soap Ad.




Actions and Clothing that Highlight a Women’s Chest As part of the sexual appeal used in advertisements, it has become a common occurrence where a women’s physical appeal is emphasized, in other words women are objectified.  

Examples of that occurring can be addressed with the ad 

Women seen running are an example of acts that accentuate a women’s figure, their curves or chest (Image 17) & (Image 10). 

Image 17: Jazz Mobile Network Ad.



Male and Female Intimacy

When intimacy is displayed in ads like is observed to be in Lux soap ad (Image 18) and (Image 2), and close up toothpaste ad (Image 5), a sexual outlook is portrayed. Reported by the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography, set up by the US Congress and president, erotic visuals and pictures arouse feelings as an automatic reflex response. It arouses the viewer by initiating cognitive processes called fantasies that births arousal (Przybyla, 1983).

Image 18: Lux Soap Ad.




Focus Group Discussion (Heavy Viewers)

Once the researchers determined the presence of sexual messages in the advertisements, a focus group discussion was conducted on 4 groups of children to analyze if the observations and research objectives were applicable on the 12 ads.

It was first confirmed if the ad was seen by them before, and the children claimed they had seen them all before on TV, at home. They were questioned indirectly to maintain their age integrity. 

They were asked questions regarding:

a. If they approve of the revealing clothes the actors are wearing.

b. Should men and women be shown naked?

c. Their take on intimacy between men and women.

d. Should there be an element of attractiveness shown between men and women.

e. Should women’s chest and physical characteristics be highlighted?




Cultural Objectification

While the children were given an open environment, there were children whose responses were uncertain, but most of them showed no discomfort or disapproval towards the sexy clothing worn by the actors in the ads. The EU (Image 7), the lux soap ad (Image 8 & 9) and the Palmolive soap ad (Image 10) were shown with the reference of addressing the objective of revealing clothing. One participant responded as:

“She looks really nice; I wish I was allowed to wear such dresses”.

While another responded the participant one with:

“Why are you not allowed, there is nothing wrong with them and the girls look pretty in them”. 

“Look even her friends like her because she looks really nice” (The participant referred to the Palmolive soap ad)

It was observed by the researchers that no child disagreed with the style of clothing worn by the girls in the ads. They on the contrary believed the women looked prettier and nice. This take on the matter was deemed as a positive response towards revealing clothes. 

The children when were exposed to ads that portrayed girls and boys as naked (Image 11, 12, 13, 14 & 15), the responses were instant as one participant questioned rather than stated “she’s naked in the open bath?” his bench mate was heard saying to the boy that “of course she’s naked, no one takes baths with clothes on so it’s okay” The response was deemed as positive by the researchers towards the children taking being naked as a normal phenomenon. When the researchers asked of if the ad was creative, a participant commented that “they should have shown her putting soap and shampoo to make it look like she is bathing right”. 

A participant was even recorded coming in front of the class and demonstrating how they could have improved the ad by showing the ‘right way’ to apply soap. When asked of the ad being inappropriate as the actors were being shown on TV taking baths, more than one participant expressed their views that “It’s normal to take a bath, what is wrong with the ad?”, while another exclaimed “baths keep the germs away, so it is actually a good thing”.

When the children were shown the Jazz ad (Image 17) where men and women alike are showing running, as a result accentuating their physical figures and particularly the chest area of the women. When the researchers asked what the children think of that ad, being that they first all agreed to have seen it multiple of times on TV; there was observed a sense of hesitation and when they were prompted, a participant replied “girls shouldn’t be running” while the rest of the participants were observed hiding smiles and giggles. The boys sitting at the back were heard whispering and laughing over the accentuation of the women’s chest in the ad. The observations were hence recorded as the children being well aware of the sexual message being displayed. 




Seductive Gestures and Acts

Slice juice ad (Image 1) was presented to the children and their responses were recorded. The researchers got mixed answers here, some openly just stated that “the girl is pretty” or “she is my favorite”, while some asked why was looking “that” way, the researchers here observed that the children were indeed receiving the sexual message from the ad, they just didn’t know how to place it. While there were some especially amongst the boys that were whispering and laughing amongst each other. When they were encouraged to express their thought, one of them stated “they shouldn’t be looking like that, it is wrong”, another participant said “she should not be looking like that towards the boy” but both did not elaborate further.

Girls seemed to shy away from answering, it was hence concluded that even though the children don’t understand what the suggestive acts and seductive gestures mean, and they still identified the sexual context of the content. For the Vaseline ad (Image 3) a girl was observed snickering and acting out touching her leg in the same manner as the actor did in the ad. 




Male and Female Intimacy

The children were noticed of watching the Lux soap ads (Image 2 & 18) and the close-up toothpaste ad (Image 5) with undivided attention. They were observed understanding the sexual message and while they didn’t respond in words, their behavior provided enough proof to support the research objectives.  

They were shown snickering and whispering amongst each other. The researchers here gave them a 20-minute break, making them see the researchers were busy amongst each other, so the children could discuss amongst each other openly, and observed their actions from afar. The direction of their conversation was evident for the ad they just saw, including their gestures and body language.  The results here were rather surprising, the children were heard talking about how the actors were dancing and touching each other. They even discussed the act being ‘inappropriate’. Piece of their conversation was picked, “did you see she was so close to him, were they going to kiss?”, “the girl wanted to be close to the boy so she kept going back to him, they were very close”.

 

Heterosexuality and Readiness

The children didn’t word a positive response for when they were asked regarding the actions of the man (Image 20) showing dominance, but with more encouragement there were responses like “The boy is strong as the girl can’t escape him”, and when were pointed out that that was not a good act, a participant expressed that “the girl came to the boy herself so it’s the girl’s fault”.  “The boy liked her that’s why he came to her”, it was again observed that the boys were snickering, and the girls were seen hiding their smiles, the behavior and responses concluded that the children again understood the sexual content behind the message but didn’t directly say it. 

The results and observations recorded from the heavy viewer groups were surprising to say the least; this clarified that even at such a tender age such messages made the children think about things they shouldn’t be thinking about. This as a result is observed to be damaging to the children and their normal development. Revealing that media does indeed conspires and uses sexual appeal as a tool to gain more profits, without even considering the consequences it might have on children. 




Focus Group Discussion (Light Viewers)

Light viewers were studied from two madrassas and were questioned regarding their views on body exposure, heterosexuality and the intimacy between men and women. 

The teachers were quite rigid in keeping the children away from any sort of sexual indicator and were a constant effort convincing to let us talk to the children for some time. They believed media is toxic for them and that religious teachings are the only thing children should focus upon. And so, the session was only agreed upon in the presence of the teachers. 




Body Exposure

Initially the researchers made light conversation with the children to make them comfortable. They were asked of their ethnicity and ages, and then eventually were asked their views on revealing clothing and exposure of skin. The responses were recorded extremely negative “It is sinful, why are you asking”, “Allah will be very angry at those women”, to more responses like “everyone needs to cover themselves, that is the purpose of clothes, to cover”.




Heterosexuality

When the attraction between the opposite gender was discussed, it was immediately discouraged by the children “it is prohibited, don’t you know’, there were children who went home at the end of the day and had limited exposure to TV, their response was as a participant stated, “it is very wrong and such things should not be shown in the TV”. Another light viewer agreed of seeing such content and said “such acts are the work of Satan, girls should properly cover themselves and those getting close to the opposite gender will go to hell” 




Intimacy Between Opposite Genders

The responses of the children lacked knowledge with regards to seeing boys and girls dancing together, a participant expressed “I don’t have TV at home”, and when the same question was asked to a participant who had a controlled 2 hour TV exposure only, he stated that “yes I have seen those ads but my parents change the channel when such ad appears, it is a sin they are committing”

Especially when my father is with me, I feel extremely bad while seeing such ads “stated another participant.

After observing the body language and responses of the children, it was concluded by the researchers that the children with little to no exposure to media were not exposed to the sexual implications of such appeals. These participants were unable to understand the sexual messages and had no sign of early introduction to sexual themes. 

The children selected for this study were based on characteristics and that if they were high or light viewers. These sexual appeals may be placed in the ads as the objectification of women, seductive gestures, heterosexuality and intimacy between men and women etc.

The children learn and imitate what they see as is stated in Bandura’s Social Learning Theory, and that learning becomes the foundation of later learning and progress (Board on Children). The Cultivation Theory by Gerbner expresses that it is media that cultivates ideas, beliefs and concepts in the mind’s of viewers. Supporting the claim of this research that development changes during early chilhood stage has longterm consequences. 

Wearing sexy revealing clothing that expose the figure of an adult eg. The curves, cleavage, legs etc. falls under sexualization (Bragg, Buckingham, Russell, & Willett, 2011). When an individual is detained to a certain standard based of physical appeal to be sexy, they are objectified and presented as sexual objects to be used instead of being independent and unique beings (Zurbriggen et al., 2007).

Conclusion

Around the children there are models from whom they learn and imitate from. Even though we might not remember but what we experienced in childhood sticks with us. This phenomenon has been proven by the social learning theory that children learn and will imitate what they see, and these changes have lifelong affects and consequences. That development then becomes the base of their future learning and progress. 

The advertisers, in this era of technology are using appeals to capture the attention of the audience in this competitive market. Among these themes, sexual theme is prominently used. 

Emphasizing the line from the article “Too Much, Too Soon? Children, ‘Sexualization’ and Consumer Culture”, ‘what is intended at children is not essentially consumed by them, and also what is aimed at adults is not only consumed by them’, and this has serious consequences in their future lives that they fail to understand as of now. 

The research with all the indicators and observations have been concluded positive. The research objectives were addressed and answered, and evident sexual themes were identified from the ads portraying both men and women in intimate and compromising situations.  

The study proves the claim that sexual appeals used in advertisements are a stimulus acting sexualizes the children. The recorded responses of the participants accommodated our research objectives and determined that heavy TV viewers rationalized the sexual themes and found it as normal or rather enjoyable. It was observed how even when the sexual message was unclear, the children understood the context behind it. It was also proved during the discussion sessions that the children will imitate such themes, as was proved by a participant who demonstrated the act to a fellow friend. The children hence can be concluded that they not just receive the messages but also understand and grasp its intent. 

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